What Can You Buy with Bitcoin?

Are you dreaming of a Crypto Christmas? I am and I hope you will enjoy my look at spending your bitcoins.

The holiday season is coming with numerous merchants; many store giants with enormous amounts of dollars in earnings, thinking of accepting bitcoin in return for goods and services. Most are online e-commerce websites, but lots of bricks-and-mortar shops are now recognizing cryptocurrency.

While in the past searching for a bitcoin-accepting retailer for the product you wanted was generally difficult or even not possible, there are increasing choices for people who want to buy with bitcoin this holiday season.

The best method to find bitcoin-accepting stores is through marketplaces and communities. CoinMap.org offers a visible way to find bitcoin merchants in any geographical area and recent businesses are showing at all times. Below are summaries of some of the options you may find.

Spending your bitcoin

No matter how you obtained your digital currency, if it is not for speculation, you are likely to try and spend it some day. So, what are your purchasing options with bitcoin?

The great news is that there are countless small merchants that accept bitcoin all over the World.

Bitcoin gift cards

The simplest way to turn your digital currency into ‘real-world’ merchandise is through gift cards.. If you cannot find online or physical stores that take bitcoin directly for the item you want, gift cards are the catchall choice.

A lot of gift card businesses accept bitcoins and gift cards can be used at a wide number of large merchants like Walmart, Nike, Amazon, and Target. For US customers, companies like eGifter, iTradeBTC, GiftCardZen and Gyft have the greatest range of choices.

In the UK, Gift Off allows customers to use 15 cryptocurrencies to purchase gift cards for 177 merchants, such as Marks & Spencer, Amazon, Ryan Air, and American Clothing. The service is presently moving out to the EU also, with Germany and France being first to get a more handful of gift card choices. Most retailers and countries are organized to follow shortly.

Note: several gift cards are just legitimate in their country of issue, which is the United States (though overseas customers can still purchase goods and services with gift cards from US merchants most of the time). Other countries have their options; for instance, Australians can see what is offered at Bitcoin Gift Cards. You will probably pay more to trade your bitcoins for gift cards (around 5-10% is common) but on the upshot, you don’t have to deal with transfer or exchange.

Physical outlets that accept bitcoin

With payment solution providers like Ingenico accepting bitcoin you can pay with cryptocurrency at many local retailers now.

BitPay continues to make the process of using bitcoins to make purchases from merchants easier. BitPay offers retail solutions for both physical and online stores. The number of stores that accept bitcoin as a payment option continue to grow as BitPay grows their customer base.

The holidays are quickly approaching. If you are looking to spread some holiday joy this year may be one of the best yet to buy with bitcoin. Crypto Christmas awaits!

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